My Highway to Seattle

I-90 alternate. Ditch the car, baby!
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Memorial Day in Action

One year ago I was coaxing her back into a training regimen to join me on the 2009 NYCDC AIDS Research Ride. My sister, Tammie, found one of very few acceptable excuses not to return to DC with me this year by taking her recreation prowess to the troops. Specifically, MWR Entertainment Specialist at Bagram AFB, shuttling entertainment to our soldiers all across Afghanistan.

This Memorial Day, as we remember those who gave their lives in service to our country, I also salute Tammie and all who strive to motivate the living to serve another day.

Follow Tammie's adventures and find out how she spent Memorial Day 2010.

Celebrate That

Seems appropriate to return to blogging a new cycling season in earnest today, the 15^th anniversary of Bret’s passing. Though I’ll never again experience May 5 without some sense of loss, there is more to celebrate in each passing year.

Today’s HIV testing is fast, easy and more readily available on a global basis than it was in the early 90’s. Once detected, treatments are less expensive, far easier to manage – think a few pills per day instead of handfuls of pills 3x a day – and much more effective.

Though some have experienced HIV levels reduced to undetectable amounts, no one can yet claim to have a found a consistently effective weapon against HIV and its fatal course to AIDS, particularly when paired with the dual hurdles of poverty and access to regular medical care. Still, a diagnosis no longer comes with the automatic 12-18 month death sentence Bret received. More of those infected with HIV are living longer, better lives.

Today, I celebrate that.

In memory of
Bret Marshall Granato

"Voices of Friends Vanished and Gone"*

Plugging in the earbuds on my mile walk home along the streets of San Francisco, shuffle mode. The Boss breaks into "The Streets of Philadelphia"...

Flashback 1980... telling Dad I'm moving across the country to California. "San Francisco? Isn't that where all the gays are?" A remark reflective of emerging focus on a mysterious new disease appearing on that scene.

Never could bring myself to see the movie but for 3-1/2 minutes on the streets of San Francisco, the haunting tune transported me through three decades of my own image reel, seemingly sourced in a single ironic prophecy.

*Bruce Springsteen

Status

Last night, I lost mine. Weekly air commuting never won me any brownie points with Al Gore but it did earn me MVP Gold status on Alaska Air. For 5 years I delighted in short-cuts through SeaTac security lines, first class upgrades and no change fees but this year I was grounded, so begin 2010 as a mere MVP.

Interesting how status is so often used to categorize treatment of people in general; an easy way to conserve the time and energy of considering their value as unique individuals. HIV status is no exception. In fact, it proves the rule in striking and often frightening ways.

Such stigma is attached to an HIV+ status that creative screening methods had to be introduced in countries where even walking into a testing facility could mark you for shunning. The developed world was rightfully stunned by Uganda's recent consideration of a bill that essentially forces HIV status declarations in an effort to imprison and even put to death individuals accused of homosexuality. Yet those stunned individuals need look no further than their own neighborhoods to witness an HIV+ status causing a family, church or community to reject their own at precisely the time their support is most needed.

Society will never eliminate the need to categorize certain treatments by status. I’ll miss jumping to the front of those security lines but lucky for me, Alaska Air delivers top-notch service to every passenger despite their member status. In all cases of status, whether economic, societal, legal or otherwise, we must be diligent to never lose sight of individual self-worth.